For as long
as I can remember, I've been interested in audio and particularly the qualities
associated with really good Stereophonic music reproduction. And I've often
noted how there are such a myriad of different ways to design a pair of speakers
and still get a high quality sonic illusion that easily communicates qualities
like believable imaging, spatiality, height, dynamics, frequency extension,
sense of immersion, and toe tapping musicality; should they be found in the
recordings listened to in the first place. Apparently, speakers can come in all
shapes and sizes, be constructed of wood, metal, glass, carbon-fiber, concrete,
and even plastic. And they have been in use in telecommunications and related
industries for almost a hundred and fifty years, now  the end of a long chain
in a line starting (most often) with the microphone or pick-up; along with the
telephone and phonograph which inspired it's creation.

Early on, I was lucky enough to attend recording sessions
where my father would be playing keyboards: harpsichord, piano, organ, or
clavichord. And the producer and engineer(s) would often bring several different
pairs of speakers to use as control room monitors  these were their sonic
window on the recording process. The B&W 801 (first made in 1979) was a
perennial favorite, showcasing a big box woofer but with a midrange and tweeter
that were in separate smaller cabinets that rested on top of the woofers. In my
experience, this was one of the first designs I encountered where some kind of
isolation and time alignment of the drivers was taking place. And this was
before the compact disc (1983) had even been fully conceived or prototyped by
Philips and Sony.

Another great speaker I first encountered was at a gathering
at then Stereo Review magazine critic, David Hall's house; I was introduced to
the highly respected Quad ESL-57; an odd, slightly curved rectangular panel with
little depth that sounded amazingly transparent and immediate! Dare I say I was
mesmerized by the sonics as well as the rest of the system, consisting of all
original quad tube gear. David's explanation of the QUAD were a bit beyond my
scope at the time, but since then I've developed a special love for how
bi-radial figure-8 panel speakers can offer soundstage and imaging accuracy that
is often unrivaled. I wonder whatever happened to that particular pair of
speakers hopefully still making beautiful music, somewhere out there?

Lastly (but hardly least), one of my parents dear friends,
Harry & Natalie Maynard, owned a set of BSR two-way speakers that looked a lot
like something out of a sci-fi film. Flat, black and four inches thick, they
were a meter tall with a pair of rectangular pistonic drivers under an
acoustically transparent grill cloth. Their voice-coils were unique and
rectangular, made of a carbon doped plastic and designed to offer as little
weight and sonic coloration as possible. Harry used them as the front pair of
his four-channel quadraphonic (discrete) living room review system, with a pair
of Ohm-Walsh dodecahedron (12-sided) speakers filling out the back channels. His
devotion to getting the whole soundfield correct in his living room was
legendary in the 1970's, and I was gifted with many listening sessions where he
extolled quadraphonic tapes, records, and even four-channel replayed over two FM
radio stations simultaneously and live  a triumph of the time both
technologically and aurally.

The above three examples:

1) The B&W dynamic driver system is tight sounding but
sometimes boxy or colored

2) The see-through transparent and boxless QUAD electrostatic
panels, which have limited high level output (won't play loud), and being a
complete dichotomy (opposite) of technological approaches to sound reproduction
are still only two ways to make a loudspeaker. Others, like the

3) BSR mentioned above and many others exist and have come and
gone over the many decades since Stereophonic (more than one channel) sound
first came into production (1954, believe it or not). And with the switch from
mono to stereo and more speakers also came an increase in the expected quality
of those recordings.

Could those early much higher quality albums and recordings
have something to offer us today not easily experienced with our modern
audiophile designs? A different level of emotional involvement with our music
than many are used to, these days?

RediscoveryI was indeed fortunate to be asked to attend and write about
the California Audio Show 2017, based near San Francisco, this past August. It
offered up and reminded me of some wonderful new and old speaker designs that
after three days of careful listening almost completely changed my viewpoint
about sound reproduction; in several key and marked ways. The size of the show
created by CAS owner, Constantine Soo, was both large enough to provide
sufficient variety of gear to listen to but small enough to make every room
approachable and listenable over the course of the weekend; that number was 20
 and it should not be underestimated!

Strolling up and down the long hallways of the Oakland Hilton,
I saw and heard many intriguing stereo systems on display, many for the first
time. And while there were examples of both fine and often expensive designs,
with a few of them topping out near $500,000 clams, I found several more
affordable options that sounded just fabulous for a fraction of that price. So
it was with the PureAudioProject room, featuring the new Quintet15 Horn1
loudspeakers ($9990) designed by Ze'ev Schlik and powered here by the unique
$13,000 Whammerdyne "Truth" Ultimate Tube Amplifier (uniquely simple output
signal path) with Verastarr copper & silver foil cables.

These tall (84") two-way loudspeakers only became available to
hear on the second day of CAS 2017 and featured no less than four  15" woofers /
low midrange drivers (per side) with a compression midrange / tweeter
attached to a 14" by 6" flared wood horn in the middle of each speaker array;
both custom made for PureAudioProject by Eminence Speakers LLC in the US. They
included a high-end crossover with hand-wound coils by Mundorf, high resolution
ceramic resistors by Mundorf /HP Audio, and caps by Mundorf / Rike Audio all
connected point to point on a board with golden screw terminals.

And naturally,
at this level, internal connection wire (and also speaker cable) was custom made
by Verastarr in either 26 mm wide pure Silver or 11mm 99.9997% (9N3) pure Copper
flat ribbon cable (Reference AudioFoils). Pretty much state of the art while
looking and sounding as big as life, towering over me as you can see from the
photos. They were powered by the three watt Whammerdyne "Truth" handmade,
single-ended 2A3-based Ultimate Tube Amplifier ($13,000), which distinguishes
itself by using absolutely no resistors or capacitors in the signal path! And in
this special combination really made for a truly enjoyable and amazing, musical,
tactile listening experience in a way that allowed me to more closely connect
with the music being played than anything else at this show!

I returned to the PureAudioProject room quite a few times over
the three days I was in attendance, first hearing and liking the smaller Trio15
Voxativ (see photos and the December 2017 Enjoy the Music.com
reviw) and finding that the qualities exuded herein
continued to increase in abundance with the larger Quintet15 Horn1. I heard
things like wide front soundscaping, spot on timbre, pulsing rhythms, pinpoint
imaging, heart pounding dynamics, live and realistic tone quality all combining
to create some intense holographic magic rendered with elegant and realistic
verisimilitude with all the fine musical selections I heard. Although quite a
few of the other twenty CAS 2017 rooms caught my ears and eyes for various reasons,
making my scoring process difficult, it was this particular combination that
really hit me, repeatedly: I felt I was in the midst of the musicians each time
I came in and listened for a spell.

And with the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
(Verve 1956) playing through either the Trio or Quintet speakers, it defined
what I think and feel really producing an audiophile product is all about:
Achieving that feeling that you're listening to real musicians creating live
music, often with sufficiently tactile and otherworldly resolving power that you
loose yourself in the illusion and feel it's real; like the individual dynamic
and tonal qualities produced by these two great musicians and the Oscar Peterson
band behind them. It's a miracle of sonic and historic time travel!

Setup And Review ProcessNaturally, I made arrangements with Ze'ev to receive a review
loan, starting with this exact pair of Quintet15 Horn1 loudspeakers, which had
so entranced me. In no time, I was receiving a medium sized batch of nine well
packed boxes containing the speakers I had just heard a week earlier. As you can
see, there was a little bit of assembly but nothing any competent IKEA fan
couldn't handle. Starting with two vertical - three piece elements that make up
each frame (left and right sides of the speaker) and a heavy base, which all
need to be bolted together with included aerospace 6mm hex bolts and supplied
washers, the speakers come together by screwing the eight 15" woofers (four per
channel) onto the back of the included open baffles (white gloss finish, in this
case, but available in other custom colors and wood finishes). The Horn1
mid/tweeter came attached to it's baffle so I only needed bolt it to the center
of each speaker system; Joseph D'Appolito style = Mid/Tweeter/Mid orientation.
Lastly, I added the included PAP1 crossovers to the base pads of each speaker
and connected those crossovers to the speaker's drivers with the supplied
Verastarr flat silver foil cables; a sight to behold.

The open baffle design in combination with a compression horn
is nothing new; just Google it. But here, on a radial curved design, it seems to
work wonders in a way that easily bridges the gap of time and place (imposed by
a recording) to create meaning and emotional significance while listening to
great music; a rare thing in these days of portable distraction and tiny ear
buds. From the moment I started this new system up, featuring several different
types tube, solid-state, and digital amplification in rotation, it became
instantly apparent how every recording had something unique to offer through the
Quintet15 Horn1. As you read
within last month's Enjoy the Music.com December 2017 Review Magazine of the smaller PureAudioProject Trio15 Horn1 loudspeaker
(reviewed by Paul L. Schumann), there is a special magic to how these speakers,
with there simple crossover and custom drivers, just get out of the way of the
sound and music. They are immediately capable of intoxicating qualities of
persuasion while drawing the listener directly into the performance.

As you might imagine, set-up is key with these speakers in
order to achieve the highest level of transparency because a significant amount
of the sound energy is also coming out of the back of each speaker. Therefore,
care must be taken to achieve the best in-room acoustic balances. The quality of
sound and voicing of the speaker's generated soundfield is easily affected by
the speakers proximity to nearby walls, ceiling and floor. Positioning at two
feet from the rear wall is a recommended minimum distance. And a certain amount
of experimentation is definitely advised; just a few centimeters movement can
make the bass shine or become reticent and lacking. Thus a period of getting to
know how best to set-up and appreciate these musical instruments is necessary;
and reasonable considering the price point.

And because this is a modifiable (adjustable) speaker design,
where the internal wiring and crossover elements are visible and accessible,
special performance upgrade options include:

1) Choice of Silver or Copper flat foil cables

2) Different brands and types of capacitors,
resistors, and inductors (many hand manufactured).

3) Alternate midrange / tweeter modules.

You are looking and listening to a speaker capable of changing
its sonic spots easily with just a simple substitution. I did briefly play
around by adding a Mundorf Cap to each crossover (a five minute process), and in so
doing providing an alternate high frequency slope that better suited my choice
of rooms. So it is a little hard to imagine not being able to create an
outstanding musical presentation with these speakers, given a little listening
and adjustments by the end user.

Sound And Music
Of course, once the new speakers are assembled (a process that
took me about six hours by myself in total) and you have them more or less in
place, this is when the fun really begins. Right? Now, if you are like me, you
will be coming at your new speakers from the vantage (listening stand) point of
the old speaker's sound quality. Which means the new speakers are going to sound
vastly 1) different, 2) the same, or 3) some of both (most likely and in
different areas), but this is tricky, and I'll tell you why:

Speakers are voiced by human beings and designed to operate in a certain room setting or size; most of the time. This is how products are produced for reliable and enjoyable sales. Yet the PureAudioProject Quintet15 Horn1 loudspeakers are sufficiently different in performance characteristics due to their open baffle design plus sculpted wood horn combined with simple and modifiable crossover networks that you are very likely to get sensational dynamic and tonally inspiring sound in most set-ups home or office settings I can typically imagine. I experimented with two different room interiors and several speaker locations throughout the ninth week on and off review period from the middle of August to November 2017.

Because the Quintet15 Horn1 is essentially a larger version of
their smaller Trio15 Horn1 but with twice the effective woofer surface area to
generate bass and lower midrange, thanks to twice the number of 15" woofers, the
Quintet15 Horn1 will play more authoritatively and louder in larger rooms where
a greater amount of air needs to be moved while the listener is often sitting or
standing farther away. The intriguing curvature of the Quintet15's frame (not
found on the Trio15) focuses the sound in a manner that mates well and quickly
with most habitats. Sitting near or faraway, located in a medium or large room,
given both small and large amplification, I had great success producing
believable three dimensional imaging that (in a controlled acoustic) created a
holographic sound image that spanned in front of the speakers from way left to
way right and even beyond.

Now, what do I mean by that, exactly? Just have a
listen to the XLO/Sheffield Labs Test & Burn-In CD (10041-2) with Track
2 "Relative Phase / Out-of-Phase" with Roger Skoff  one of my favorites for
system set-up and evaluation. Roger's voice announcement is intended to verify
phasing: whether + (red) and  (black) leads are correctly hooked-up between
the amplifier and the speakers. But I like to also use it for imaging
evaluation. And when everything is set-up correctly in a playback system, this
particular announcement track images way out to the sides of your listening
environment or even beyond  quite an audiophile thrill, really; considering
you can turn your head the imaging stays off to the side.

When an "Out-of-Phase" signal (like XLO / Roger Skoff example
above) images precisely and repeatedly off to the extreme left and right sides
of your listening area (when seated in the sweet spot), then any recording with
that kind of deep spatial information will also image correctly, out into your
listening room. And here is where different recordings and albums will
demonstrate significant acoustical information about the instruments, vocalists,
or venue that can redefine your listening experience, entirely. And when I
auditioned other material that I knew had such strong side soundstage imaging,
it was no surprise that each item sounded uniquely different and vivid,
especially through the Quintet15 Horn1.

Let's take a quick look and listen to the 1956 studio album
called Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong on Verve (LP, CD, SACD, and
Hi-Res Audio files of various degrees) and featuring the Oscar Peterson Quartet.
This album was playing at CAS 2017 and at other shows, this and every year; be
on the lookout for it. Technically, it's a simple mono (one channel) recording
presenting eleven ballads all captured on August 16, 1956 at Capital Studios,
Los Angeles. This is the beginning of the Capital Records era of great sound;
and much of the artistry comes from the beautiful and intimate rapport between
these amazing musicians, captured so subtly

Just have a listen to track 8 "Cheek
to Cheek" by Irving Berlin in any of the versions available and you will be
drawn in by this seductive production by Norman Granz; particularly so when
heard on the Quintet15 Horn1 loudspeakers and a simple tube amp (Rogers, Bob
Carver, Mesa Boogie, etc.). And not a lot of watts are needed since these are
extremely efficient (>96dB/W/m) speakers. But the better the amps, the better
the sound reproduction; especially from the Digital Amplifier Company's Golden
Cherry Amps, which distinguished themselves by not changing their sound quality
at all regardless of material being played or it's playback volume.

An album reminiscent of James Bond from the 1960's but with
consistently stunning sound quality is the CD of Austin Powers Complete
Scores, Baby [RCA Victor 63735] featuring a huge array of instrumentation
and recording techniques. George S. Clinton is a master of film & television
composition and his unerring ability to be inspired by and graft the Bond style
mixed with jazz of the period onto Mike Meyers' English spy comedy provides both
a great musical backdrop but also a terrific audiophile listening session,
anytime. Track 7."Probe / Fembots / Evil Orbit" and Track 15. "Chess" are easy
picks for listening and evaluation of any high-end audio gear, with "Probe"
giving a huge orchestral soundstage with excellent dynamics and detailed tone
quality and "Chess" creating a much more intimate image with more individual
elements of the ensemble soloing, such as the harp, hammered dulcimer, and
guitar; creating clearly defined acoustic boundaries of the recording studio
with individual musicians playing within. And vivid and compelling are two terms
I'd use to describe the sound of this album played on the Quintet15 Horn1
speakers, with a compelling sense space depicted both in front of and behind the
loudspeakers that sounds quite authentic and tactile  sprawling imagery
(again given a well tuned room).

As a remastering engineer (since 1990), it's always rewarding
to go back and listen to fine work done by others, and witness fully realized
versions of great songs under the ear of a master. And so I delight in Steve
Hoffman's outstanding work remastering top 40 on the album Awesome '80s
[OPCD-4551]. From the very first track of this two disc compilation: (1-01) "Another
One Bites The Dust", Queen sets the stage for a rip roaring couple of hours that
are far, far more involving than listening on the car radio ever was. Tiny
details that often are taken for granted or missed altogether are clearly
fleshed out by the Horn1 and supported by the eight 15" woofers, that
manage an unusually good balance with most rooms the speakers are set-up
correctly in. It is this coupling of the speaker to the room that makes such a
remarkable contribution to the overall sound and musical pleasure derived when
hearing music through the PureAudioProject loudspeakers. Conversely, if I
listen to the same songs but from their original CD releases that were not
remastered by Steve Hoffman, they sound distinctly different; both the tone and
the space of the songs are different; sometimes being similar and almost as
good, but often not  proving that the quality of the acoustic engineering in
the Quintet 15/Horn 1 is truly of a refined order that can present music (and
audio containing dialog) with startling immersion.

Lastly, I'd be remiss not to comment on what some recordings I
have personally produced, recorded, remastered, etc. sound like under controlled
conditions. And as you can imagine, most folk do not have the professional
experience comparing actual live sound at the concert hall, studio, or wherever
with the sound achieved in the recordings of that same sound. Microphones all
sound different, and engineers can produce any sound they desire, given enough
skill, luck, or people. But it is an entirely different thing to produce a stone
sober mirror facsimile of that live sound out of a pair of speakers. And few
will have even imagined that this is possible or is a trick of the mind. Let me
tell you about the albums:

Each of these albums has been produced and engineered using
ONLY a single stereo microphone, so that the stereophonic imaging over speakers
(and headphones) is realistic and repeatable on many different playback systems.
I would encourage everyone to assemble a small group of albums (format is less
important) that they are very familiar with to use when comparing speakers and
other aspects of one's stereo system and it's gear. By carefully listening to
this small well known group of albums (or tracks), over and over, again, you
will slowly be able to discern whether significant changes have occurred during
an equipment substitution or even how atmospheric changes from day to day effect
the acoustics of your room. In any case, you are certain to find better and
worse sounding recordings but the best will shine out in ways that are clearly
obvious and enjoyable to hear. Go explore!

ConclusionsOne thing is for sure: speakers come in all shapes and sizes.
Some sound good, others sound bad. But if you care about connecting with your
music, then your going to have to give the PureAudioProject Quintet15 Horn1 an
audition because it can (quite possibly) transform your listening experience. I
spent nine weeks on and off listening closely to these speakers in comparison to
a wide range of contenders I also had here at Kipnis Studios (4k AV Production
Studio) under two very different acoustic room conditions (medium living room
 not tuned, and large playback theater  tuned). I played around to see how
good and how bad I could produce sound from known recordings, many of which I
made or was directly involved with producing and recording. So little mystery
remained. And instead my appetite was wet for more coming in a future review.

And when all of that was carefully tabulated and compared,
measurements and listening observations, the results were obvious: the very same
pair of speakers I had heard at CAS2017, sans hand-made Whammerdyne amp,
produced wonderfully immersive, tactile, dynamic, tonally nuanced presentations
that could throw a substantially believable soundstage out into the listening
room. At the audio shows, including Rocky Mountain 2017, the smallness of the
hotel rooms was not an issue for Ze'ev Schlik (CEO of PureAudioProject) to
create striking and involving presentations. And I was able to achieve as much
and more in my much larger playback rooms under both better and worse acoustical
settings. And while it still required a little bit of experimentation for
several hours over a number of days (or weeks) the sonic end results are
riveting and a bit intoxicating; resulting in many, many long nights of
listening well past normal bedtime.

If your desire is to connect with your music, then you
probably already have a substantial investment in your audio and, dare we say,
video system. But even if you don't, you might be surprised how obviously
superior some speakers are to others. And that superiority can take many forms:
size, shape, sound, and how they make you feel. PureAudioProject's latest loudspeaker design, the Quintet15 Horn1, takes its place among a cherished handful of great speakers that are true musical instruments. I
mentioned a few that I came across growing up in my introduction. Each continues
to have merits that draw attention from audiophiles, even today. The asking
price of $9990 is reasonable given the quality of the custom components and the
perceived listening value provided by this new speaker system. And I suspect
that anyone already committed to high-end sound will be thrilled to add the
Quintet15 to their systems. Furthermore, I have requested additional pairs of
this brand of speaker to create a true (8 to 12) multi-channel music / media /
movies & television playback system. Please stay tuned!